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The Book of Gates

The Book of Gates is the principal guidebook to the netherworld found in 19th and part of the 20th Dynasty tombs of the New Kingdom, though it makes its first appearance to us with the last king of the 18th Dynasty. It was meant to allow the dead pharaoh to navigate his way along the netherworld route together with the sun god,
so that his resurrection could be affected. It emphasizes gates with
guardian deities who's names must be known in order to pass them. This
is actually a very old tradition dating to at least the Book of the Two
Ways in the Coffin Texts, where there are seven gates with three keepers at each.

The middle register in the third hour of the Book of the Dead from the burial chamber of Ramesses I

Sources of the Book of Gates

We are not sure exactly when the Egyptian afterlife text known as the
Book of Gates was composed. While some authorities, such as Hartwig
Altenmuller, believe that, because of its similarity to the Amduat, it sprang from a time prior to Egypt's New Kingdom, others think it may better be attributable to the Amarna period. Regardless, the first example Egyptologists are aware of is that incomplete version in the tomb of the last pharaoh of Egypt's 18th Dynasty, Haremhab,
who had the text placed in the sarcophagus chamber where, until then,
the Amduat had been customary. The founders of the 19th Dynasty also
employed the Book of Gates. Ramesses I included it alone in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings on the West Bank at Ancient Thebes (Modern Luxor), while his successor, Seti I', decorated the sarcophagus chamber of his tomb
with the Amduat, reserving the Book of Gates for his two great pillared
halls. This version includes only the first half of the book. However, Seti I's alabaster sarcophagus is adorned with the earliest complete and continuous version of the book. The famous Ramesses II also used the text in the upper pillared halls, sarcophagus chambers and subsidiary rooms of his tomb and his son, Merneptah, decorated the right wall of the corridor of his grandfather, Seti I's cenotaph at Abydos with a complete Book of Gates. There, he also placed the Book of Caverns on the left wall.

From Merneptah, the following kings until the reign of Ramesses IV had the text recorded on the walls of their sarcophagus chambers. A number of kings, such as Ramesses III also had selected text from the book placed on their sarcophagus, and some commoners, such as Tjanefer, a priest of Amun under Ramesses III, were also allowed to use a selection of the scenes. Ramesses VI broke from this tradition, replacing the text with the Book of the Earth in the sarcophagus chamber, but included a complete Book of Gates in the upper part of his tomb. However, Ramesses VII was actually the last pharaoh to include any of the Book of Gates, using the first and second hours in a single corridor. By Ramesses IX, it disappeared entirely from royal tombs.

After the New Kingdom, portions of the book continued to show up only
sporadically, perhaps because the composition is so oriented to the
specific person of the king. We find the concluding representations in
the Book of the Dead of Anhai, which may date to the 20th Dynasty, as well as in the mythological papyrus of Khonsumes that dates from the 21st Dynasty and in the 26th Dynasty tomb of Mutirdis. Other extracts from the text are also found in the tombs of Petamenophis at Thebes and Horiraa at Saqqara, while the first hour and judgement hall occur often on late, non-royal sarcophagi.

Research on the Book of Gates

Because, in the tomb of Seti I and the Judgement of the Dead in the
tomb of Ramesses VI, the Book of Gates depicted foreigners, it aroused
the interest of scholars at an early date. These particular text were
frequently copied. However, it was Jean-Francois Champollion
who provided the first description of the Book of Gates, along with
some translations in his 13th letter from Egypt, dated May 26, 1829. He
mostly relied on the tomb of Ramesses VI for this translation. Yet the
standard publication for many years was from an 1864 documentation of
the alabaster sarcophagus of Seti I by Bonomi and Sharpe. In the
ancient Egyptian text, the book is not named, so it was Gaston Maspero
who originally designated it Livre de Portes (Book of Gates). He also
referred to it as the Livre des Pylones, or "Book of Pylons, and Eugene
Lefebure called it Livre de l'Enfer, or "Book of the Netherworld".
Lefebure also provided a brief survey of its contents for an essay in
1888. Previously, he had already published the first translation of the
text on from the Seti I sarcophagus in 1878 and 1881. In 1905, Budge
described and translated the sarcophagus version and made a comparison
between its hours of the night and those in the Amduat. However, because
by this time the lid of the sarcophagus had been destroyed, his
analysis was erroneous. The incomplete version of the Book found in the
tomb of Horemhab was published in 1912 (after having only been
discovered in 1908). More recent editions of the Book of Gates include
that published by Charles Maystre and Alexandre Piankoff, who created a broader textual basis with their work of 1939-1962. However, this version was replaced by that of Erik Hornung
in 1979. Today, the complete English version of the text by Pankoff
has been available since 1954, while the German translation created by
Hornung has been around since 1972.

Structure of the Book

The Book of Gates portrays the gates of the netherworld far more
visibly and systematically than other similar compositions. It compares
most readily with the gates in the Book of the Dead, spells 144 and 145,
which the Ramesside Period Egyptians considered a substitute for the
Book of Gates in tombs that did not belong to pharaohs, such as that of Nefertari and others in the Valley of the Queens.
In fact, gates in the Book of the Dead spells and elsewhere have caused
some confusion with the Book of Gates even among some scholars. The
concept of gates in the afterlife was a reoccurring theme amongst many
of the books of the afterlife.

On the sarcophagus of Seti I, the hours are in a continuous sequence
resulting in the concluding scene occurring directly behind the head of
the deceased. The Osireion
and the tomb of Ramesses VI also provide a continuous text, though in
other tombs the hours are distributed over various walls and rooms.

The Book of Gates encompasses a total of one hundred scenes, many of
which fill an entire register, though the last two hours contain a
number of brief individual scenes. The Middle Egyptian of dialect of the
text displays hardly any influences from the Late Egyptian written
language, though it has been established that this composition contains
an especially rich vocabulary.

The structure of the Book of Gates is very similar to that of the
Amduat, with twelve nocturnal hours each divided into three registers.
As in the Amduat, the first hour of the night has a special position with a structure that differs from the remainder of the composition.

However, in the last three hours, the main figure (Atum or Horus)
is omitted from the lower registers, which show only deities and not
the blessed dead. Also absent are long concluding texts. Instead, we
find depictions of the Judgment of the Dead and the course of the sun,
not divided into registers, in the middle and at the end of he
composition. Also absent are notations concerning the use of the Book,
but are replaced by remarks about offerings, which as a rule are located
at the end of a scene (though not in the final three hours).

The Book of Gates also differs from the Amduat by the means of the
gates depicted at the end of each hour. In the Book of Gates, each gate
has a guardian in the form of a serpent on its door, as well as two
further guardians with scary names and fire spitting uraei. Also, in the solar barque, only two gods, Sia
and Heka are found depicted together with the sun god, while there are
many crew members in the Amdaut. In the Book of Gates, the cabin of the
barque in each hour is protected by a mehen-serpent and four male
figures are portrayed like hieroglyphs towing the barque. In the
sarcophagus chambers of Haremhab, Ramesses I and Seti I, the clothing
and beards of these figures clearly mark them as human, rather than
divine beings.

The judgement hall of Osiris is given a special, central position
inserted into the fifth gateway of the Book of gates. Situated just
prior to the union with the sun's corpse in the sixth hour, the texts
are specifically cryptic. However, beginning with the tomb of Seti I,
this judgment scene is replaced by one depicting the king before the
enthroned (and later standing) Osiris, so that no longer are the dead judged, but rather the king is identified with the ruler of the dead.

More than a thousand deities and deceased persons, representing many
more than in the Amduat, are depicted within the Book of Gates. However,
they are more regularly combined into groups, and they bear fewer
individual names. Many of these groups represent deceased persons rather
than deities.

Content

This text, like other netherworld compositions, is concerned with the
nocturnal journey of the sun. Compared to the Amduat, the hours are
somewhat displaced. For example, in the Book of Gates, the drowned
appear in the ninth rather than the tenth hour. Also, because of the
grouping of deities and deceased persons, they are more clearly
distinguished from each other then in the Amduat, and the dead appear
bound to their respective regions in the hours of the night. Here also,
the dead king's special status is more clearly defined, as he
accompanies the sun god to his rebirth in the morning. In fact, most
versions contain additions to the texts and representations that refer
directly to the king.

Hour One

As the sun god inters the ream of the dead, he is greeted by the
collective dead, who are assigned the title of "gods of the west:",
rather than individual deities. Actually, as in the Amduat, this first
hour is an interstitial place that precedes the actual netherworld after
the first gate. Here, there are two steaks surmounted by a ram's head
and a jackal's head that both punish and reward those who dwell here.

Hour Two

In the second hour, the dead are clearly separated between those in the upper register of the composition, who have followed Ma'at
and who are now blessed, and those in the bottom register who have not,
and are now reprimanded by Atum. The four Weary Ones are depicted,
along with the "enemies". In the middle register separating these
extremes is the barque, which encounters the "gods in the entrance",

Hour Three

The third hour of the Book of Gates appears to emphasis a few motifs
that are central to the nightly journey, including mummies in the upper
register, which are awakened from the dead and reanimated in their
shrines. Here also is the ambivalent Lake of Fire, where the damned will
meet flame. However, the blessed dead are provisioned from the same
flames. The middle register depicts the sun god being towed along in the
"barque of the earth"., a symbolic condensation of his entire journey
through the depths of the earth. At the end of the register he is
dressed in sparkling white linens which is also symbolic of renewal.
However, Aphophis the snake makes his first appearance in front of Atum as well. Atum must be assisted by two Enneads in order to overcome this archenemy.

Hour Four

Perhaps variations of the Lake of Fire from the third register, two
bodies of water dominate the top register in the fourth hour of the Book
of Gates. They are called the Lake of Life, which is guarded by
jackals, and the Lake of Uraei. In the middle register, shrines
containing mummies of the dead, not yet risen, stand before the barque.
The sun god causes their resurrection and provisioning. Their renewed
life in the hereafter occupies an entire hour of the night. The passing
of the hours is laid out in the following scene, with its many-coiled
serpent representing time and its twelve goddesses embodying the hours.
The enshrined Osiris is protected on all sides by the gods of his entourage in the lower register, while Horus cares for his deceased father. Osiris' enemies are punished in the fiery pits at the end of the register.

Hour Five

Hour Five is one of the most complex hours within the composition. In
the upper registers, the gods are portrayed with a surveying cord,
because the deceased are allotted space (in the form of fields) within
this hour. The deceased are also allotted time, and hence the gods also
carry the body of a serpent and the hieroglyphs meaning "lifetime" in
the lower register. In order to accomplish this, the Apophis fiend,
known as "the Retreater, must once again be battled and fettered. Behind
Apophis we notice the ba-souls
of the blessed dead, and at the beginning of the lower register are
found the four "races" of mankind, including Egyptians, Asiatics,
Nubians and Libyans. Each race is represented by four individual
figures, who are assured existence in the afterlife. They are placed in
the care of Horus and Sakhmet. It should be noted that the Great Hymn of Akhenaten, Aten
is said to care even for foreign people, and hence, they are sheltered
in the realm of the dead, according to the Book of Gates.

The Judgment Hall

Just before the sixth hour, we find the portrayal of the Judgment
hall, empathized by its insertion as a special scene. This is the only
representation of the Judgment of the dead in any of the Books of the Netherworld,
and so it is distinguished by the use of cryptographic writing. In the
earlier versions, Osiris is enthroned on a stepped dais while the
personified scale in front of him, unlike that in the Book of the Dead,
bears empty pans. Therefore, the blessed dead stand on the steps of the
dais, while the enemies who are consigned to the "Place of
Annihilation" lie beneath their feet. Here also, we see another mincing
power in the form of a pig being driven off.

Hour Six

The judgment of the Dead is therefore the prelude to the union of the
Ba and the corpse of he sun god (like those of all the blessed
deceased). The sixth hour of the night is the deepest part of the
journey through the netherworld. In the middle register, the dead corpse
of the sun god immediately in front of the barque and its towmen, is
invisible. It is being carried by gods whose arms are also invisible
because of their contact with the corpse. In the lower register, mummies
of deceased persons lie on a long, serpent-shaped bed so that they may
participate in the union with the ba and the resurrection that it
effects. Gods holding forked poles in the upper register keep Apophis at
bay while this critical event unfolds. From his head people who he has
swallowed are now set free once more. There is also the depiction of a
twisted double rope that represents time. It is being unwound from the
pharynx of the god, Aqen. The lower register of this hour end with a
scene depicting a circular Lake of Fire which is inhabited by a cobra
that acts as a deterrent to all enemies.

Hour Seven

In the seventh hour, the central motif is the elimination of all
mincing forces that might interfere with the sun's renewal. In the
middle register, just before the solar barque, appears the jackal headed
"stakes of Geb", with two enemies of the god bound to each. Re,
the sun god consents to their torment by two demons. However, in the
upper register we find two groups of blessed dead, one with baskets
filled with grain as a sign of their material provisioning, and the
other with the feather of Ma'at as a symbol of their vindication in at
the Judgment of the Dead. They will exist until the end while sheltered
by Ma'at, while the damned below are consigned to the Place of
Annihilation. The caption on this upper register speaks of Osiris
welcoming his new followers. In the lower register, we again find the
blessed who have followed Ma'at, who are here gathering huge ears of
grain intended for their assured provisions. Others are provided with
sickles for harvesting, while the rays of the revived sun effects
abundant fertility.

Hour Eight

We once again find the depiction of infinite time depicted as an
endless rope spooled out hour by hour, and also as the towrope of the
barque, which "produces mysteries." In the middle register, the "lords
of provision in the west", who stand before the barque, are commissioned
by Re to allocate provisions to the blessed while at the same time
inflicting evil on the enemies. In the lower register are once again
mummies. They have turned over on their biers and are therefore in the
process of resurrection. Nearby, a council of judges protects them.

Hour Nine

In the middle register of the ninth hour, a theme is borrowed from
the Amduat (tenth hour). Here, a rectangle of water contain the drowned.
Four groups of deceased humans are found floating in the primeval
waters of Nun.
They are actually being refreshed by the waters and will therefore be
resurrected. We find that their noses breath the air, and their ba-souls
will not be destroyed so that they will share existence with the
blessed. In these scenes, Re
is the "one who is in Nun", and in the scene that concludes the book,
he will be raised up out of Nun. The souls of the blessed appear in the
upper register. Before them stand a group of figures who offer them
bread and vegetables. By contract, in the lower register we find, once
more, the condemned. Here are depicted twelve enemies who are each bound
in one of three different manners. They are inflamed by the Fiery One, a
huge serpent who has been called forth by Horus for the atrocities they
have committed against his father, Osiris. The children of Horus stand
in his coils of this great snake.

Hour Ten

The middle register of the tenth hour is entirely filled with a
representation of the battle against Apophis. Fourteen deities hold nets
containing magical powers above their heads. This magic renders Apophis
defenseless. Perhaps Geb,
as the "Old One" ties fetters around the snakes body. In the upper and
lower registers we find special manifestations of the sun god. In the
upper register, he is depicted as a griffin and is followed by two
serpents who help in the punishment of Apophis, as well as the other
enemies. In the lower register the sun god is portrayed in the center as
a falcon, though he is also referenced as Khepri
("scarab beetle"). He is connected to other figures by a continuous
rope. The text that accompanies this scene talks of the "emergence" and
stresses that the journey is proceeding now towards the sky.

Hour Eleven

By the eleventh hour, we find a bound Apophis and other enemies in
the upper register. He is dismembered, and hence rendered harmless. The
rope that holds Apophis and his assistants is held by a giant fist
emerging from the depths. In the middle register, the dead may gaze upon
the continence of the God Re, who's face is making its way in the
barque. n interesting aspect of this scene is the reversal of the
barque, which may be an allusion to the reversal of time. Before the
barque are the stars which will herald the reappearance of the sun god.
We find in the lowest register oarsmen of the god, together with the
goddesses of the hours; time and energy (rowing). They will propel the
barque up into the eastern horizon. Here, the battle in the netherworld
is obviously won, for some deities are already announcing he god in the
horizon. There cries will be joined by the din of noise that will
eventually accompany the rising sun.

Hour Twelve

In the twelfth hour, the sun god finally arrives at the gate "with
the mysterious entrance", through which he will the miracle of his
rebirth will occur. In the upper register, gods "carry the blazing
light". which is obvious from the sun disks in their hands. Stars
precede the appearance of the sun, while goddesses seated upon serpents
surround and protect the solar child. Before the god's barque lies
Apophis, who is fettered. He is held in check by gods with knives and
shepherd's crooks in order that he may not impede the sunrise. Just
behind him are four baboons, their arms raised in jubilation, who
announce the sun god in the eastern horizon. Several motif are
represented in the lower register, including crowns that are to be worn
as symbols of power when leaving the netherworld. Also, we find the
nurses of the newborn sun, while at the same time, Osiris is mourned,
for he must remain in the netherworld. This final gate, through which
the sun god will emerge onto the horizon, is guarded by Isis and Nephthys, in the form of uraei.

Concluding Representation

The final scenes are not divided into registers as elsewhere. Like many illustrations accompanying the solar hymns of the Amarna period,
the entire course of the sun is condensed into a single picture. Half
hidden by the primeval waters indicated by wavy lines, the god Nun
raises the solar barque of its depths. In the Barque, Isis and Nephthys
embrace the sun in the form of a souring scarab beetle, as he pushes
the sun disk toward the sky goddess Nut.
She is upside down, indicating the inversion of the sun's course, which
will once again run in the opposite direction from its course through
the netherworld which is here the embodiment of Osiris. He surrounds
this dark world with his curved body. Therefore, all three areas of the
cosmos are represented, including the primeval waters, the height of the
heavens and the depths of the earth. From above and below, arms embrace
the sun, holding it aloft as it moves through the day.

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